President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said the government would form a commission to look into the records of police officers to see if any of them are involved in the illegal drug trade.
Marcos said this after Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos appealed to senior officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to turn in their courtesy resignations as the government attempts to cleanse their ranks of illegal drug ties.
In an interview in Pasay City on Friday, Jan. 6, the President backed Abalos' call to senior police officers, saying they would form a commission to identify the police officers with possible drug ties.
"We will form a commission, and we will look into the records of all of the officers as we slowly reinstate those who are clear, and, maybe, we will have to decide what do we do with those that are implicated to being involved in the drug trade," he said.
The Chief Executive said this is how the current government will approach the drug war, in contrast to the previous administration's high-profile, tough approach.
"We approach it in entirely differently way. Alam naman natin na ‘yung problema sa drugs hindi mangyayari ‘yan kung hindi kasabwat ‘yung mga iba diyan sa police (We know that the problem on illegal drugs won't happen if there are no police involved)," he said.
"Kaya’t kailangan natin tingnan ng mabuti sino ba talaga ang kasabwat diyan, sino ba talaga ang involved, at sinong hindi na talaga pwedeng mag-serbisyo dahil associated na sila sa mga drug lord (That's why we have to carefully look into who are involved and can no longer serve because of their ties with drug lords)," he added.
Marcos said this move would ensure that the police left are not working for drug syndicates.
"We are just cleansing the ranks and trying to see --- and making sure that ‘yung mga opisyal na natitira sa atin, eh maaasahan natin at nagtatrabaho para sa gobyerno, hindi nagtatrabaho para sa ibang sindikato (that the officials we have left are reliable and are working for the government and not the syndicates)," he said.
Last year, President Marcos said the country's drug war should be more than law enforcement as he noted the alleged human rights abuses under the drug war of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Enforcement, which has been the part of the drug war that has been most vigorously pursued by President Duterte, only gets you so far,” he said.
“My approach is slightly different. Perhaps we should look instead of just enforcement — which will continue but in a more focused way — let us also look at prevention,” he added.